ORLANDO — Cisco System’s developer program DevNet – which has surpassed 500,000 registered members – received a lot of attention at its flagship event this week, and its new DevNet Ecosystem Exchange program, available now, includes 1,300 applications for system integrators and channel partners to access.

While many partners have become familiar with some of DevNet’s capabilities since 2014 when DevNet was created, this new “solutions catalogue” as Susie Wee calls it, could unleash apps and integrations that allow for much faster innovation.

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“You can go to ecosystem exchange, and for different products, take a look and discover the ISVs that work for that specific infrastructure platform, and then find the system integrators that can bring everything together,” explained the vice-president and CTO of DevNet at Cisco, adding these solutions can be purchased from Cisco and its partners through existing subscription offers. “Our customers are using more than one product in these types of solutions. You start to have these combinations of solutions, so it makes sense to put it in one catalogue.”

Alongside the partner exchange program, Cisco launched the DevNet Code Exchange, a curated list of sample codes from GitHub include adaptors, tools, and SDKs, all of which are compiled by Cisco and the DevNet community. The platform is for anyone working on smaller components of a solution.

A booth at the DevNet Zone at Cisco Live focuses on the world of IoT, and allows people to program a small-scale smart city built with Lego. Photo by Alex Coop.

“DevNet within Cisco, is teamed up with very closely with our partner organization, our sales organization, and our businesses and partners – we work very much within the fabric of the entire company,” said Wee.

Rick Snyder, vice president of Americas Partner Organization, echoed her thoughts, adding DevNet is also “inextricably linked” to its existing partner programs.

“They have to be,” Rick Snyder told CDN during a briefing at Cisco Live. “Traditional partners have to establish application development capabilities. It’s going to be key for them to provide value and differentiation to customers, and to remain competitive. It’s an exciting time.”

Wee also praised Canada’s efforts when it comes to building smart cities, adding it will lead to an explosion of innovative ideas and networks.

“I have some friends who work in the Canadian government and their pushing to modernize cities, transportation systems and looking to build them with the newest technology and experiences. So there’s a lot of innovation work that’s coming from the government to make build that infrastructure.”

Cisco also launched the DevNet DNA Developer Center, a one-stop-shop for developers to build applications and integrations on the DNA Center platform, and includes various resources, use cases and learning materials for developers.

Staff writer for IT World Canada and former community reporter. When not writing about the tech scene, Alex is playing or watching basketball, reading comics and looking up slow-cook meals. He’s also a massive fan of bow ties.